Plastic bags are popular for storing food and other items. Zippered plastic bags that can be securely closed and reopened are particularly popular due to their ability to maintain freshness of the food stored in the bags and/or to minimize leakage into and out of the bag. These bags are used one at a time by consumers and large numbers of these bags are also used by businesses to package items that are then sold to consumers. An example of a business that uses a large number of these bags is a food producer and packer. For example, nuts, candy snacks, ingredients, salt, cheese and other food and non-food products can be packed in these bags by packaging equipment such as form, fill and seal machines and the filled bags sold to consumers.
For a variety of reasons, including difficulty in closing the zipper, some consumers prefer an easier way to open and close the zippers on these bags. As a result, zipper bags with a slider to open and close the zipper have become popular with these consumers. Product manufacturers, however, have not used the slider and zipper in their packaging equipment because there has not been a way to assemble and accumulate the sliders in a configuration that can be fed easily and quickly to the packaging equipment. In order to supply this market with sliders and zippers, it is desirable to assemble and accumulate sliders in a configuration that can be used with packaging equipment.